After a LOT of trial and error (mostly error) I'm happy to say that my adventure island's jib is flying nicely. Well enough that I now lay claim to owning the worlds fastest adventure island . Of course all challengers are always welcome to meet me down at the Dunedin causeway.

The aluminum frame attaches to the bow with bungee so it can flex and not stress out the hull. So far it's working very well. The jib's tension is adjustable with the halyard line and I don't tighten it down much which gives a softer luft (a bit of a curve). For some reason, this has worked out better than I expected in the fact that it's also a benefit in downwind sailing. I wasn't expecting this at all. I'm no longer planning on adding a spinnaker. In most downwind angles, the mainsail deploys on one side and the jib appears to catch the wind from the mainsail on the other side of the mast. I'm not sure what this is called but it does add to my downwind speed.

Bungees are temporarily being used on the hakas to experiment with different angles and positions of jib lines. It's been very educational and I'll use that info to eventually position permanent cleats and guides.

When not in use, the jib furls and folds neatly onto the aluminum frame. Deploys professionally when launching, I attach one jib halyard line to the mast topper block and up it goes with minimal effort. Same with stowing it when you return from sailing. It took a bit of trial and error to get an efficient system.

The other day in jib testing, I pulled up alongside a 16' waverunner (with no jib). Their sail had a large boom and the sail was a lot larger than the AI. As we sailed side by side and talked, I then decided to yank my mirage drive which was covered in weeds. For a moment my AI was faster than the waverunner. As I pulled ahead I said I had my parking brake on. All in all, we were closely matched with the waverunner a tad quicker overall.

Haven't put a rear stay line and not sure I will. I think the key is knowing what conditions to deploy the jib and what conditions to keep it furled or just unfurl a small slice. Also will continue to work on the mast topper. I'm still using a hybrid of my mast topper with bearings but may eventually go to a design like Bob (Fusioneng) uses on his TI. So far I've experimented with about 7 different mast toppers and 3 completely different furlers. It's been a lot of fun.Since the design changed so radically in testing, I took the video down until completely finalized which should be the middle to end of September

_________________Jim

Last edited by CaptnChaos on Mon Sep 10, 2012 4:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

If you want to prove your "fastest AI in the world" do not wait six months. Register for the NCC and come to North Carolina. Plenty of AIs in that race to prove your claim...

Well Paul, the EC and NCC introduce a whole slew of different challenges which more prove who has the endurance, strategy and smarts. That's not what I claimed. I'm a novice watertriber and don't plan on even being close in the challenge and just hope that I can finish. The modifications made to my AI were to "try" to keep up next year .

But as the "AI" stands today, It feels faster than any I've ever heard of ... in a 20 mile race with wind, I look forward to testing that theory out with anyone.

Call me when the winds hit 25knots and we'll see which half of your AI crosses the finish line first.

Keep up the excellent tinkering,.. and let's see those GPS tracks.

Thanks for the note NOHUHU. However, I sense you've been fooled once again into a false sense of advantage being that you own a Hibiscus AI. I used to believe the stories and lore passed down of Hibiscus AI's being considerably faster than the slower and sluggish pathetic Papaya's. It's a new age NOHUHU, time to step aside and get used to the rule of the powerful new Dune AI's.

Oh but wait ... I confess to knowing of one very special and rare blue AI out there with an owner intent on ruling the water. Time will tell but the force is strong with that one.

_________________Jim

Last edited by CaptnChaos on Tue Aug 14, 2012 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I took down the videos of my early jib system since numerous changes have been made and I don't want anyone copying an early prototype which needs tweaks. Every time I go out, I take notes and make the necessary modifications. The latest mast topper has morphed several more times and is now working beautiful using a double set of heavy duty sealed bearings housed in aluminum. Very strong and fairly lightweight with a west marine wind vane added to it. The main furls and unfurls easily as well as the jib.

The most important thing added were two stay lines above the jib attached to the amas which served the AI well these last couple days in 12-18 mph winds. The jib flew in these conditions although a few times I did reef the main and jib when the conditions started getting too crazy. The stays are an absolute must in my opinion. They're rigged so they're easy to snap on before departure and are not in the way.

Today between running and a broad reach, the jib provided enough lift to my bow so I sailed across the tops (quite fast) of the waves instead of through them. A friend with his TI was behind me a ways plowing through the waves. The aluminum external bow frame did it's job absorbing the stresses. I could see it flexing the bungee that is it's attachment point to the bow.

Like the hakas, it's another addicting AI modification that I'll never leave home without. The only thing that still needs some work is organizing all the lines. I'm slowly working on that and hope to have it organized the next couple months.

So Jim,What supplies do I need to pick up at Lowes and West Marine on my way to your house to start building the worlds fastest dune TI? C

Lowes should be closing out their Hakas (end of season) soon so I would wait for them to go on sale.

But hey, you can't have the worlds fastest TI Charley. Fushioneng already has the fastest and he's probably unbeatable with his setup. Plus I'm quite sure Hobie has a couple super TI's out there too. I heard rumor we might see one at the 2013 EC.